If someone had told me 20 years ago that I would one day be giving a lecture at the Rutherford Institute (TRI), I would have scoffed.

“The Rutherford Institute!” I probably would have snorted. “They don’t support church-state separation! Why would I want to talk to them?”

Yet there I was yesterday in Charlottesville, Va., talking to a crowd of Rutherford interns and residents of the community (including three Americans United members). In fact, this was the third summer running that I’ve spoken at TRI.

Earlier this year, we reported on preliminary survey results that showed most Texans (72 percent) did not want the Religious-Right leaning Texas State Board of Education to determine public school curriculum.

They wanted teachers and scholars to write curriculum standards, not an elected board of ideologues pushing an agenda.

Let’s say your boss holds a prayer meeting every morning at 10. Let’s say you’re not comfortable attending. At the next prayer meeting, your boss says, “Anyone who doesn’t like this can go stand in the hall while the rest of us pray.”

What are the chances you’ll walk into the hall? Isn’t it more likely you’ll be worried about getting on the bad side of your boss? Won’t you fret over your next promotion or raise – or even keeping your job in this troubling economy?

Earlier this week, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a bill that would have created civil unions in the state.

In her veto message, Lingle talked about how she agonized over the decision. She said she has always opposed extending marriage rights to same-sex couples and concluded that this bill was essentially marriage under another guise.

As I cruised some news headlines online this morning, I came across an interesting tidbit: Bronislaw Komorowski, the newly elected president of Poland, campaigned in part on a promise to increase the separation of church and state.

As we head into the long weekend in celebration of the birth of our country, it’s a good time to remember how lucky we are that our Constitution guarantees us so many rights and freedoms.

One of these freedoms, of course, is the option to choose what faith to believe in, or to believe in nothing at all. Our Constitution protects and welcomes everyone, whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or an atheist.

Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan are in full swing, and as Americans United had hoped, we’re getting some questions about separation of church and state.

Yesterday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Kagan about the relationship between the First Amendment’s “Establishment Clause,” which bars laws “respecting an establishment of religion” and the Free Exercise Clause,” which curbs laws “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion. Together they provide for religious liberty and the separation of church and state.